Today's Labour News

This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.

BL Premium reports that the head of Edcon, the country’s second-largest clothing retailer, says SA’s anaemic economy is simply not growing enough to allow companies to boost earnings and create jobs.

Grant Pattison, the CEO of Edcon, which owns CNA, Jet and Edgars, has joined business leaders from across the spectrum in calling on the government to put an end to policy uncertainty and create "a positive investment climate". Sibanye-Stillwater’s Neal Froneman and FirstRand’s Alan Pullinger have also urged the government to take action. With the economy only growing at an annual 0.9% in the second quarter of 2019, according to Stats SA’s latest GDP figures, "this is the most difficult retail environment I have ever seen. And worse than the current situation we are in, is there doesn’t seem to be much news ahead that would change it," Pattison observed. The government has to create a more positive investment climate, he said, stressing that this meant encouraging not just foreign investors, but local investors to put money into the economy. Pattison, who has been at the helm of a restructuring plan for the 90-year-old retailer that almost collapsed in February, said that despite the tough climate, the group was on track with its turnaround strategy, though it remained "very fresh".

Read the full original of the above report by Lynley Donnelly at BusinessLive (paywall access only)